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Corruption at Household Level in Cameroon: Assessing Major Determinants

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Corruption at Household Level in Cameroon: Assessing Major Determinants Corruption at Household Level in Cameroon: Assessing Major Determinants By Joseph-Pierre Timnou and Dorine K. Feunon Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management The University of Yaounde II AERC Research Paper 247 African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi August 2012 THIS RESEARCH STUDY was supported by a grant from the African Economic Research Consortium. The findings, opinions and recommendations are those of the author, however, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Consortium, its indi- vidual members or the AERC Secretariat. Published by: The African Economic Research Consortium P.O. Box 62882 – City Square Nairobi 00200, Kenya Printed by: Modern Lithographic (K) Ltd P.O. Box 52810 – City Square Nairobi 00200, Kenya ISBN 978-9966-023-19-3 © 2012, African Economic Research Consortium. Contents List of tables List of figures Abstract Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature review 4 3. Methodology and conceptual framework 6 4. Findings 14 5. Conclusion 24 Notes 26 References 27 Appendix 29 List of tables 1. Summary of variables of interest 11 2. Corruption indexes by region relative to schooling, medical care, other services and security forces (Total column = 100% not shown) 14 3. Corruption indexes by place of residence, ability to read and write, gender and poverty status (Total column = 100% not shown) 15 4. Corruption indexes by type of household (Total column = 100% not shown). 16 5. Corruption indices by marital status of household head (Total column = 100% not shown). 17 6. Corruption indexes by level of instruction of household head (Total column = 100% not shown). 17 7. Corruption indexes by religion of household head (Total column = 100% not shown). 18 8. Provincial determinants of petty corruption (high aggregated variables) 19 9. Departmental determinants of petty corruption 20 10. Household economic determinants of petty corruption 20 11. Socio-demographic determinants of petty corruption 22 12. Determinants of petty corruption by groups of variables 22 Appendix: Evolution of Cameroon classification since 1995 according to CPI of TI 29 List of figures 1. Determinants of petty corruption 7 Abstract Corruption is a major blight on modern society. It is acute in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that has suffered economic ills for many years. It is difficult to tackle the problem due to its politically sensitive nature. Indeed, top officers are viewed as generally corrupt. Corruption is a topical issue in almost all countries in the region. Nevertheless, relevant empirical research is lacking, especially in countries where corruption is rampant. Existing studies highlight illegal practices in trade, finances, international relations, etc., but there are still many aspects to be addressed. Cameroon is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, although the situation is improving each year according to the Corruption Perception Index issued by Transparency International. Today, the fight against corruption is part of the government agenda but important changes are yet to come. The household survey carried out in 2001 examined elements of corruption in common household domains like health, education, security and other services including external community variables. This can be termed petty corruption. This paper tries to explain if there are large differences between communities that can be explained by community variables. Simple analysis using two variables shows important variations in the level of petty corruption, notably according to regions (increasing from rural to urban areas) with the poor being less likely to give bribes. Using multivariate analysis it appears that: a) modernization is associated with petty corruption; b) political environment does not really matter, except the influence of city councils; c) expenditure and level of education do not show similar trends; d) civil servants are not associated with bribe giving; and, e) positive impacts are found with age, number of years of education, low level of education and Islam. Some results observed with multivariate analysis contradict those found with bivariate analysis. All in all, although community variables can explain differences in petty corruption, household characterizations are equally important. This is just an outline of corruption practices in Cameroon. Its foundation lies on a few variables whose measure is not perfect. For further research, it is necessary to enlarge the scope of the study and improve the measurement aspect. Nevertheless, the results can help make better decisions to reorient the fight against such bad practices, since corruption is recognized as a deterrent to development, especially when it becomes systemic. Acknowledgements The author is grateful to the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, for their financial support. The author also wishes to thank the AERC resource persons for their useful and enriching comments. Finally, the author is grateful to external reviewers of this paper for well-articulated comments and observations. However, the author remains solely responsible for the views and shortcomings of the study. CORRUPTION AT HOUSEHOLD LEVEL IN CAMEROON: ASSESSING MAJOR DETERMINANTS 1 1. Introduction orruption is synonymous with social wrongs; whether practised at macro or micro level, by politicians or businessmen, the consequences of corruption are Cnegative on the whole population, especially when we distinguish between who corrupts and who is corrupted. Divergent views exist on the impact of corruption. With the spread of the phenomenon today, it is agreed that for Africa corruption is the greatest obstacle to social and economic development besides poverty. Regrettably, in view of the national and international policies adopted in the past years, it appears that not enough emphasis is placed on corruption. The outcome is bad governance and absence of democracy. However, there is no agreement on how best to bring dictators and the corrupt who impoverish the masses to account. Human rights are emphasized but there is no real strategy, internationally nor nationally, to assure that better behaviour can be obtained from policymakers and the society as a whole. Despite worldwide concern over corruption, many African countries have taken time to admit that the problem is pervasive. Progressively, it has become obvious that the problem is real. It takes different forms and has varying levels. Given the political environment surrounding it, only a few empirical studies exist. Corruption has always been with us but its magnitude seems to have increased with the last world economic crisis, going by the magnitude of empirical and theoretical studies. No definition of corruption is clear-cut given its many dimensions: givers against receivers of bribes, sectors concerned, occasional or systematic etc. According to Transparency International, “Corruption is the abuse of a received power by delegation for private achievements”. Many derivatives of the concept exist. Some compare corruption to a tax or a fee (Boycko, Shleifer and Vishny, 1995). Lambsdorff (2007) defined corruption as the misuse of public power for private benefit. Other criticisms are found in Djankov et al. (2003). The common ratings of corruption are: (i) the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) produced by TI is the most widely disseminated (criticisms here concern the methodology); (ii) the International Country Risk Guide’s (ICRG) corruption indicator is said to capture the likelihood that senior government officials will demand special payments and the extent to which illegal payments are expected throughout government (it does not determine a country’s level of corruption, but the political risk involved in corruption); and (iii) the Control of Corruption (CC), drawn from a large set of data sources (Kaufmann et al., 2003). These three measures are similar with high correlation between them. Others are the International Crime Victim Surveys (ICVS) conducted by the United 1 2 RESEARCH PAPER 247 Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, focusing on individuals rather than firms; the Opacity Index of PricewaterhouseCoopers (OIP); and Transparent Agents and Contracting Entities (TRACE). At household level, people practise what may be qualified as petty corruption. It is more harmful since it affects the poor directly. Even with low income, one is forced to pay different bribes to access basic services such as education, health and security. Although studies have been done on petty corruption, they are few due to the difficulties associated with conducting related surveys. A common view is that perceived corruption reduces foreign direct investment in transition countries. Grand corruption involving top policymakers — even authoritarian rulers — who may serve as guarantors, seems less inimical than unpredictable petty corruption, involving time-consuming negotiations with low-level bureaucrats. According to Lambsdorff (2007), the unpredictability of bribes is related to the absence of corruption, once gross domestic product (GDP) and legal alternatives are controlled for in regression analyses. In this paper we outline the Cameroonian case using qualitative data from a household survey. Cameroon has benefited from international studies on corruption by Transparency International. Such studies give insights at macro level. The main constraint to the study is lack of data. The 2001 survey on household conditions included qualitative variables concerning bribe giving by household members. Obviously, those variables
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